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All Of The Most Important News - All In One PlaceWed, 14 Mar 2018 03:19:28 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.9Independent Journalist Exposes How Social Media Companies Are Systematically Silencing Conservative Voiceshttp://themostimportantnews.com/archives/independent-journalist-exposes-how-social-media-companies-are-systematically-silencing-conservative-voices
http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/independent-journalist-exposes-how-social-media-companies-are-systematically-silencing-conservative-voices#commentsWed, 14 Mar 2018 03:19:26 +0000http://themostimportantnews.com/?p=29402

Ben Swann has done it again. A new video that he just released about the stunning purge of conservative voices that we are now witnessing has already been viewed more than 24,000 times on YouTube alone. I have been writing about all of this censorship quite a bit recently as well, but up until now I have not revealed the true extent to which it has hit me personally. Like President Trump and other prominent conservatives, engagement on my personal Facebook profile has fallen dramatically. We are working like mad to keep engagement up on our official Facebook campaign page, but it has been a real battle, and today Facebook just banned me again from posting to groups for a few days. The funny thing is that I had barely shared anything recently. On Twitter, I have been told by a social media expert that my account has been “shadowbanned”, and that probably explains why engagement on Twitter is only a small fraction of what it once was. Of course dozens of other prominent conservatives are suffering the same kind of censorship, and it is absolutely imperative that we stand up against this unprecedented assault on our ability to communicate with one another.

It has become quite obvious that the big social media giants want to systematically exclude any voices that they do not like from the marketplace of ideas. In his new video, Ben Swann points a finger at the biggest offenders…

“Is there an Internet purge of conservative voices or voices of dissension online?” Swann begins in a recent “Reality Check” report on the issue. “Some say yes, and the purge is being pushed by YouTube, owned by Google, by Facebook, and by Twitter.”

They don’t call them “the thought police”, but that is precisely what the small armies of “moderators” that the social media giants are hiring are turning out to be. For example, late last year YouTube announced that it would bring on “10,000 new moderators” to “flag content”…

“Of course, all of this comes after YouTube announced in December that it would hire some 10,000 new moderators to flag content,” Swann reported. “And those moderators have been flagging at a stunning rate.”

He noted further that in several cases the moderators were pulling entire channels “without any advance warning” whatsoever, and that most of those channels were deemed “either pro-gun or conservative.”

If you have not seen Swann’s new video yet, you can watch it here. Following the video, other content creators commented on how they have been affected by the recent social media censorship…

-“Hey Ben, just thought I would share my story. I have now been removed from YouTube 6 times in the past few years. I am non-violent, don’t cuss, don’t show blood or gore, and I use mainstream media news clips that usually talk about these large shootings that are being used as a reason to change gun laws. I built my old channels to 10 thousand subscribers and 2.5 Million views twice, only to have my accounts removed.”

-“They even hit vdeos I had set to private that weren’t even viewable by the public. To keep my channel I deleted over 300 videos spanning back 2 years and that is lot counting the half dozen plus that YouTube yanked.”

-“I received 2 strikes in 48 hours on videos exposing crimes of the US government (that had been up for 2-3 years), which is what all my videos do. I deleted the videos from my channel to save this account for contact reasons but, It still might get deleted anyways.”

-“I deactivated my Facebook. They were instantly removing my comments. My comments had nothing to do with anything, but I did try to post a conservative video in a comment box and after that ALL of my every day comments were instantly removed and marked as spam. I am also Libertarian. I can’t believe Health Ranger’s channel was removed. I think it is awful what they are doing. Taking away support is fine, but don’t take down the channel!”

I believe that it is fundamentally un-American for social media giants to try to use their power to silence conservative voices.

These big tech companies built empires by allowing everyone to have a voice, but now they are systematically attempting to exclude conservatives from the conversation, and we should all find that extremely offensive.

If you want someone in Washington that will fight as hard as he possibly can against this kind of censorship, I hope that you will help us win our race for Congress on May 15th…

Donate By Check: Make your check out to “Michael Snyder For Congress” and send it to the following address…

Michael Snyder For Congress
PO Box 1136
Bonners Ferry, ID 83805

We are in the middle of the final money bomb of the 2018 primary campaign, and you will be able to track the progress of the money bomb on Swampbomb.com.

If you live in north Idaho, I hope that you will come out for the kickoff event for the last 60 days of our campaign in Sandpoint on the evening of March 15th. And you can see the remainder of my speaking schedule for the month of March right here.

We are in a battle for the soul of our nation, and the left is fighting dirty.

All throughout history the left has always sought to silence dissenting voices when they have taken power, and now they are trying it in this country.

Of course we are not about to let that happen, and the left is in for a very rude awakening during the 2018 mid-term elections.

Michael Snyder is a pro-Trump candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District. If you would like to help him win on May 15th, you can donate online, by Paypal or by sending a check made out to “Michael Snyder for Congress” to P.O. Box 1136 – Bonners Ferry, ID 83805. To learn more, please visit MichaelSnyderForCongress.com.

]]>http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/independent-journalist-exposes-how-social-media-companies-are-systematically-silencing-conservative-voices/feed1A Member Of Congress Explains Why The Corruption In Congress Is Much Worse Than You Thinkhttp://themostimportantnews.com/archives/a-member-of-congress-explains-why-the-corruption-in-congress-is-much-worse-than-you-think
http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/a-member-of-congress-explains-why-the-corruption-in-congress-is-much-worse-than-you-think#commentsMon, 12 Mar 2018 03:20:45 +0000http://themostimportantnews.com/?p=29397

What would you say if I told you that committee chairs were for sale in Congress? And what would you say if I told you that many members of Congress spend far more time on the telephone raising money than on the jobs that the people of their states actually elected them to do? There is a reason why so many Americans absolutely hate Congress. At this moment, Congress has an approval rating of just 15 percent, and approval ratings for Congress have been at extremely low levels for a very long time. We all know that Congress has become completely corrupt, that it is completely unresponsive to the American people and that it has become all about the money. Many have asked why I would want to become part of such a corrupt institution, and I respond by saying that it is time to take our government back.

In the very close race that I am currently involved in, there is an exceedingly clear choice between politics as usual and someone that is committed to going to Washington and turning the system completely upside down.

I believe that we need to send people to Washington that will be willing to stand up to the leadership of both parties. Below, I am going to share some things that a current member of Congress is saying about the corruption in D.C. that will blow your mind. Many would suggest that the corruption is so pervasive that it is useless to try to do anything about it. But I say that if “we the people” can get Donald Trump into the White House, then “we the people” can also take Congress back.

To get a feel for how passionate I am about this, please watch the short speeches that I made to the Latah County Republicans and the Nez Perce County Republicans over the weekend. The response to both talks was incredibly positive, and we are winning over more voters with each passing day.

We have just launched our final money bomb of the 2018 primary campaign, and we are trying to raise $35,000 so that we can fully implement our entire plan for pulling ahead in this very tight race over the last 60 days. If you would like to make a contribution, here are several ways that you can do so…

In it, Buck says lawmakers are mostly “fat and happy alligators who feel pretty darn comfortable in the swamp.” He casts Republican leaders as “playground bullies” who go to great lengths, including yanking subcommittee chairmanships and canceling lawmakers’ overseas trips, to punish dissenters. And he decries a “pay-to-play” system in which plum committee assignments and leadership slots are tied to lawmakers’ fundraising skills instead of their policy expertise.

One of the things that Buck has revealed that upset me the most is the fact that committee chairs are essentially for sale in Washington. Here is a brief excerpt from Buck’s book…

Here’s how it works for Republicans. If you want to serve on a committee, you have to raise money for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). The amount varies depending on the committee and role. For example, to serve on a B or C level committee, a GOP House freshman member must raise $220,000 every two years … Veteran members on A committees must raise more than twice that amount – $450,000 … If you become the chair of a B committee – congratulations – you’re now expected to raise $875,000 a year for the NRCC. Chairing an A committee means you must raise $1.2 million.

In order to raise such large amounts of money, members of Congress are expected to spend approximately four hours a day on the telephone raising money. This is something that I wrote an extended article about last week.

I have already pledged that I am not going to participate in that system and that I am not going to make those calls.

I believe that members of Congress should be spending their time in Washington doing what they were elected to do, and if you want to see this current system dismantled I hope that you will stand with us.

Because the Washington money machine is not behind me, we are funding our campaign entirely through grassroots donations. Hundreds upon hundreds of patriots all over the nation have helped us surge toward the top of this race, and if you would like to join the team here is how you can do that…

Donate By Check: Make your check out to “Michael Snyder For Congress” and send it to the following address…

Michael Snyder For Congress
PO Box 1136
Bonners Ferry, ID 83805

If we do not stand up to the corruption in Washington, it will just continue to get worse and worse and worse.

That is why we need to send fighters to D.C., and I am being very bold about the fact that I am not going there to play nice. I am going there to turn over the tables and to turn the current corrupt system upside down, and party leadership is not going to like that at all.

According to the Hill, those that do not play along with the current corrupt system often pay a very high penalty…

And what if you, as a Member of Congress, decide not to play along? For starters, you won’t be able to use the NRCC call suites that are conveniently located two blocks from the House office buildings, and the leadership will put out the word to the K Street lobbying community that they are not to donate or raise funds for you if they wish to stay in the leadership’s good graces. If you’re particularly rebellious, you’ll be stripped of your committee assignments, and maybe even be challenged in a primary by a leadership-backed candidate.

If they try to do those things to me, I still will not back down.

After all, I am not going there to be a career politician.

Instead, I am going there to be part of a national movement to take Congress back for the American people.

In his new book, Ken Buck spoke very eloquently about the need to drain the swamp…

Our founders’ default position was to keep power as far from Washington as possible. We can no longer afford to ignore their wisdom. A crippling national debt exists because Washington has too much power. Corruption in the federal government is a direct result of so many people getting comfortable in the stagnant political backwaters beside the Potomac. The concentration of power in D.C. attracts the worst and tempts the best, making it extremely difficult for men and women of character to arise and lead our nation to a healthier place. The best way to drain the swamp in Washington is to remove the incentive for abuse. Swamps exist when water congregates in one place and becomes stagnant over time. Draining the swamp means draining Washington of power. Washington can’t abuse power it does not have.

If you want to help us drain the swamp, now is the time to act.

There are just over 60 days until the Republican primary on May 15th, and there are four campaigns that are bunched very closely together. We have all the momentum, but a couple of the other campaigns have raised a bit more money so far.

We need to close that gap, and we know exactly what we need to do to win this race over the last 60 days. Right now we do not have all the resources that we need to implement that plan, and that is why we really, really need your help…

We are so close to winning this thing, and wherever I travel around Idaho’s first congressional district the response to our message has been overwhelmingly positive.

But we are running out of time, and there are thousands upon thousands of undecided voters that we still need to reach.

If you believe that it is time to take our government back, send someone to Washington that is committed to doing exactly that. I am asking for your financial support, and if you live in Idaho’s first congressional district I am respectfully asking for your vote on May 15th.

Michael Snyder is a pro-Trump candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District. If you would like to help him win on May 15th, you can donate online, by Paypal or by sending a check made out to “Michael Snyder for Congress” to P.O. Box 1136 – Bonners Ferry, ID 83805. To learn more, please visit MichaelSnyderForCongress.com.

Nobody is disputing the fact that YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other social media giants are censoring conservative material. In fact, this is probably the largest purge of conservative voices in the history of the Internet. Obviously this is going to cause large numbers of people to stop using their platforms, so why would they do this? Well, to some conservatives the answer is obvious. These social media giants watched Donald Trump use their platforms extremely effectively in 2016, and many believe that they are absolutely determined to never let that happen again. In fact, Mike Adams of Natural News is completely convinced that there is a concerted effort by these social media giants to steal the 2018 elections…

The realization is suddenly obvious: The Google / YouTube selective “censorship rampage” that has targeted conservative websites and content creators is a brazen, illegal scheme to interfere with U.S. elections and steal the 2018 mid-terms.

The systematic silencing of conservative views is necessary, of course, for Democrats to win enough seats to gain control of the U.S. House of Representatives after the mid-term elections. Once control is established, Democrats will immediately move to impeach President Trump. Although the Senate would not likely prosecute that impeachment, the mere achievement of the U.S. House declaring “impeachment” would be enough to convince most brainwashed news consumers that Trump is somehow a guilty criminal (nobody will remember that Bill Clinton was also impeached by the House). From there, the 2020 presidential election is also stolen, and Democrats land their selected tyrant in the White House just in time for Ginsberg’s retirement from SCOTUS.

If voices on the left were being censored to the same degree as conservative voices, it would be really hard to make such an argument.

But the truth is that the numbers show that conservative voices are being hit extremely hard by the censorship while liberal publishers have been mostly “unaffected”…

Facebook’s January 12 announcement that it would begin to de-prioritize news publishers and their posts in users’ News Feeds has had a surprisingly profound and partisan impact. According to The Outline’s analysis of Facebook engagement data obtained from research tool BuzzSumo, conservative and right-wing publishers (such as Breitbart, Fox News, and Gateway Pundit) were hit the hardest in the weeks following the announcement, with Facebook engagement totals for February dropping as much as 55 percent for some, while the engagement numbers of most predominantly liberal publishers remained unaffected.

And this even applies to politicians as well. For example, President Trump’s engagement on Facebook has fallen 45 percent since the algorithm change…

In contrast, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) do not appear to have suffered a comparable decline in Facebook engagement.

Top conservative Facebook pages with daily traffic in the millions have seen 75% to 95% drop in traffic.Young Cons, Western Journalism, SarahPalin.com,Independent Journal Review, Right Wing News, and several others have seen dramatic loss in traffic.

We can fight back. One of the primary ways that we can do that is by electing pro-Trump candidates all over the nation in 2018. Right now I am engaged in an extremely close race with three guys that did not want Donald Trump to win the Republican nomination in 2016, and I need your help to win on May 15th.

It is fundamentally wrong for the social media giants to pick winners and losers in the marketplace of ideas. I will fight online censorship as hard as I can in Washington, and if you believe in what we are trying to do I hope that you will stand with us.

Donate By Check: Make your check out to “Michael Snyder For Congress” and send it to the following address…

Michael Snyder For Congress
PO Box 1136
Bonners Ferry, ID 83805

Whenever radical leftists have taken power anywhere in the world, they have always tried to shut down free speech.

They want to follow the same formula in the United States, but we are not going to allow them to do that.

There are millions upon millions of red-blooded Americans that still greatly love this nation, and this silent majority is rising up to take our country back.

Michael Snyder is a pro-Trump candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District. If you would like to help him win on May 15th, you can donate online, by Paypal or by sending a check made out to “Michael Snyder for Congress” to P.O. Box 1136 – Bonners Ferry, ID 83805. To learn more, please visit MichaelSnyderForCongress.com.

]]>http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/are-the-social-media-giants-trying-to-steal-the-2018-elections-by-censoring-conservative-websites/feed1This Is The Worst Purge Of Conservative Voices In The History Of The Internethttp://themostimportantnews.com/archives/this-is-the-worst-purge-of-conservative-voices-in-the-history-of-the-internet
http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/this-is-the-worst-purge-of-conservative-voices-in-the-history-of-the-internet#commentsWed, 07 Mar 2018 01:14:50 +0000http://themostimportantnews.com/?p=29389

In recent weeks, we have witnessed an unprecedented social media crackdown on conservative voices. YouTube’s war with Alex Jones has gotten the most attention, but literally hundreds of conservative content creators have had their accounts penalized, suspended or deleted by YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other social media giants. There appears to be a coordinated effort to target conservative viewpoints, because similar voices on the left are not receiving equal treatment. If I win my race for Congress on May 15th, I am going to make fighting this sort of censorship one of my top priorities once I get to Washington.

How would you feel if you spent years creating videos and building up a subscriber base only to have all of that work wiped out in a single moment by a leftist YouTube moderator?

Sadly, that is precisely what is happening to dozens upon dozens of conservatives right now…

Specifically, she explained, “Questions over YouTube’s moderators and the power they hold were raised this week after notable conservative pundits, gun advocates, conspiracy channels and other right-wing voices received community strikes or were locked out of their channels. Creators who are affected by lockouts, strikes and suspensions are referring to it as the ‘YouTube Purge,’ claiming that YouTube is purging all right-wing or pro-gun content. The move follows the company’s attempt to clamp down on dangerous content following the Parkland shooting.”

One of the most disturbing examples of censorship was what happened to the Health Ranger channel. Mike Adams is a personal friend, and I am extremely upset about what YouTube has done to him…

As we reported over the weekend, YouTube terminated the entire Health Ranger video channel on Saturday, wiping out over 1,700 videos and approximately 350K+ subscribers. This was done, of course, as part of the YouTube left-wing PURGE now being carried out against non-establishment speakers who are being targeted for political reasons.

YouTube’s censorship rampage also wiped out all my videos on the donkeys I rescued, the range-free chickens I raise and even the beautiful ice crystals I captured on video over the winter. In its censorship sweep, YouTube is obliterating thousands of videos without cause, violating the civil rights of informative internet users and functioning as a criminal techno-cartel.

There is absolutely no reason for YouTube to do this. Mike Adams has literally helped millions of people through his work, and I am urging all of my readers to contact YouTube and demand that they restore his channel immediately.

Young Cons: This very popular conservative news site had millions of daily readers during the recent election, and the site received nearly all its traffic from Facebook (Lesson: Never put all your marketing eggs in one basket). Facebook has been increasingly censoring Young Cons stories since 2016; now the site struggles mightily and regularly switches domains in order to maintain traffic.

SaraPalin.com: At one point the former GOP VP nominee and Alaska governor’s website was serving up stories to her four million Facebook followers, but she, too, had to begin switching domains in order to maintain traffic.

Right Wing News: This site grew to massive proportions over the past few years, in large part thanks to its meteoric popularity on Facebook. During one week in 2015, the site’s Facebook page reached 133 million people. The site was driving about the same amount of web traffic as some of the biggest newspapers in the U.S. But since 2016 Facebook began blocking traffic to the site; its owner, John Hawkins, announced he would shut it down in January (it’s still online but the content is not regularly updated).

Independent Journal Review: This, too, was a large conservative news and information source, but because it was overly reliant on Facebook traffic, the site had to terminate a number of its employees last week, leaving the fate of the Millennial-focused site in doubt.

Pro-life group Live Action cried foul in 2017 after Twitter demanded it delete pro-life images, such as fetal ultrasounds, from its Twitter feed and website before allowing the group to run advertisements. Live Action refused the request.

That same month, Twitter blocked an advertisement by Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s campaign for Senate in Tennessee. Twitter objected to one line Blackburn said: “I’m 100% pro-life. I fought Planned Parenthood, and we stopped the sale of baby body parts –thank God.”

If you don’t stand up when you see others being censored, then please don’t complain when the social media giants censor you as well. I think that Dr. Michael Brown made this point exceedingly well in his most recent article…

First they came for Infowars, and I did not speak out—because I found them offensive.

Then they came for Geller and Spencer, and I did not speak out—because I found them obnoxious.

Then they came for Prager U, and I did not speak out—because I found them opinionated.

Then they came for a host of others, and I did not speak out—because I have my own life to live.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

This is why we need good liberty-minded people to run for office all over the nation.

If we do not fight back, this sort of oppression is only going to get worse. Right at this moment I am engaged in an extremely tight race for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, and if you want me to go to Washington and defend our free speech rights, please consider making a contribution because we desperately need it right now…

Donate By Check: Make your check out to “Michael Snyder For Congress” and send it to the following address…

Michael Snyder For Congress
PO Box 1136
Bonners Ferry, ID 83805

In the entire history of the Internet, we have never seen this sort of a coordinated purge before.

The left believes that they are going to win, but we are definitely not going to allow that to happen.

Michael Snyder is a pro-Trump candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District. If you would like to help him win on May 15th, you can donate online, by Paypal or by sending a check made out to “Michael Snyder for Congress” to P.O. Box 1136 – Bonners Ferry, ID 83805. To learn more, please visit MichaelSnyderForCongress.com.

]]>http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/this-is-the-worst-purge-of-conservative-voices-in-the-history-of-the-internet/feed4Dialing For Dollars: Members Of Congress Are Instructed To Spend 4 Hours A Day On The Telephone Raising Moneyhttp://themostimportantnews.com/archives/dialing-for-dollars-members-of-congress-are-instructed-to-spend-4-hours-a-day-on-the-telephone-raising-money
http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/dialing-for-dollars-members-of-congress-are-instructed-to-spend-4-hours-a-day-on-the-telephone-raising-money#commentsTue, 06 Mar 2018 02:07:35 +0000http://themostimportantnews.com/?p=29385

When I made the decision to run for Congress, I figured that I better learn how members of the House of Representatives actually spend their time, and what I learned chilled me to the core. It turns out that both parties instruct their members to spend approximately four hours a day on the telephone raising money. As a new member of Congress, I would be expected to raise $200,000 for the National Republican Congressional Committee, and that would require me to spend enormous amounts of time away from the job that I was actually elected to do. Of course I have already pledged that I will not “dial for dollars”, and the establishment is not pleased about that at all. To me, it is absolutely disgraceful what our system has become. Today, members of Congress are essentially mid-level telemarketers for the NRCC or the DCCC, and it is time that we said enough is enough.

As I have traveled around Idaho’s first congressional district and shared how members of Congress spend much of their time “dialing for dollars”, many people have had a difficult time believing that it is true. But of course many current members of Congress have spoken out about this, and that includes U.S. Representative Rick Nolan. During a recent interview with CBS News, he explained that new members of Congress are expected to spend 30 hours a week “dialing for dollars”…

Rep. Rick Nolan: Well, both parties have told newly elected members of the Congress that they should spend 30 hours a week in the Republican and Democratic call centers across the street from the Congress, dialing for dollars.

Norah O’Donnell: Thirty hours a week?

Rep. Rick Nolan: Thirty hours is what they tell you you should spend. And it’s discouraging good people from running for public office. I could give you names of people who’ve said, “You know, I’d like to go to Washington and help fix problems, but I don’t want to go to Washington and become a mid-level telemarketer, dialing for dollars, for crying out loud.”

If you divide 30 hours a week by 7 days, that comes to more than 4 hours a day.

Is that how you want your representatives in Congress spending their time?

Not too long ago, U.S. Representative Ken Buck was interviewed by award-winning journalist Sharyl Attkisson, and he explained that a new Republican member of Congress would be expected to raise around $200,000 for the party, but that is just the base level.

In his recent book, Buck went on to share that committee chairmen are expected to raise far more than that. The following comes from an article published by the Hill…

In his recently published tell-all book, Colorado Republican Rep. Ken Buck (R) exposed how these fundraising quotas have soared. Chairs of the so-called “A” committees — such as Appropriations, Financial Services, and Ways and Means — are now expected to raise $1.2 million for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). All the while, chairs of the so-called “B” committees — such as the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee — are expected to raise $875,000.

When you start learning how things really work in Washington, it makes perfect sense why Congress only has a 15 percent approval rating at this point.

No member of Congress should ever have to “buy” a spot on any committee.

It is a cult-like boiler room on Capitol Hill where sitting members of Congress, frankly I believe, are compromising the dignity of the office they hold by sitting in these sweatshop phone booths calling people asking them for money. And their only goal is to get $500 or $1,000 or $2,000 out of the person on the other end of the line. It’s shameful. It’s beneath the dignity of the office that our voters in our communities entrust us to serve.

This is why we should ask every single person running for Congress to take a pledge that they will not participate in this system.

I have publicly taken such a pledge, but not a single one of my six opponents has done so.

Could you imagine being elected to Congress and then spending 30 hours a week cold calling people like some sort of crooked telemarketer? This is precisely what is happening, and it is absolutely disgusting. Here is more from former U.S. Representative Jolly…

Simply by calling people, cold-calling a list that fundraisers put in front of you, you’re presented with their biography. So please call John. He’s married to Sally. His daughter, Emma, just graduated from high school. They gave $18,000 last year to different candidates. They can give you $1,000 too if you ask them to. And they put you on the phone. And it’s a script.

Since members of Congress are forbidden by law from making fundraising calls from their offices, they have to go somewhere else to make these calls.

Right across from the U.S. Capitol there are two very large call centers – one for Republicans and one for Democrats. CBS News was able to get a hidden camera into one of these call centers, and it does not sound like a pleasant environment…

No photos exist of the inside of either the Democratic or Republican centers. But with the help of a staffer, we were able to get into the Republican center with a hidden camera.

About a dozen tiny offices, equipped with a phone and computer line a corridor. This is where members of Congress sit behind closed doors and plow through lists of donors dialing for dollars. Outside in the main hallway is a big board where the amount each member has raised for the party is posted for all to see and compare.

When I go to Washington I am going to introduce legislation to end this system. Every member of Congress should be focusing on doing the job that they were sent there to do, but the current system will persist until we stand up and take action.

Like I have said so many times before, I am going to Washington to turn things upside down. We are going to drain the swamp and clean up the corruption.

If you believe in what we are trying to do, please consider supporting us. We are being supported by small grassroots donations from all over the country, and we believe that now is the time to take our government back. If you would like to make a contribution to our campaign, here is how you can do it…

Donate By Check: Make your check out to “Michael Snyder For Congress” and send it to the following address…

Michael Snyder For Congress
PO Box 1136
Bonners Ferry, ID 83805

We plan to cause so much chaos in Washington, but we have got to win this Republican primary on May 15th first. Right now we are in an extremely close race with a couple of other candidates, but we have all the momentum on our side.

We have a great plan for pulling ahead during these final two months, but we need your help.

Thanks again for helping us fight for the future of our country. Together we got Donald Trump into the White House, and together we can take Congress back.

Michael Snyder is a pro-Trump candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District. If you would like to help him win on May 15th, you can donate online, by Paypal or by sending a check made out to “Michael Snyder for Congress” to P.O. Box 1136 – Bonners Ferry, ID 83805. To learn more, please visit MichaelSnyderForCongress.com.

]]>http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/dialing-for-dollars-members-of-congress-are-instructed-to-spend-4-hours-a-day-on-the-telephone-raising-money/feed1What Do You Think Would Have Happened To America If Hillary Clinton Had Won The Election?http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/what-do-you-think-would-have-happened-to-america-if-hillary-clinton-had-won-the-election
http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/what-do-you-think-would-have-happened-to-america-if-hillary-clinton-had-won-the-election#respondMon, 05 Mar 2018 05:37:16 +0000http://themostimportantnews.com/?p=29381

As I travel up and down Idaho’s first congressional district, I frequently talk with voters about how we almost lost everything in November 2016. When I ask what a Hillary Clinton presidency would have meant for this country, almost every single time I get a response like “it would have been over” or “we would have been finished”. Our Republic was already hanging by a thread going into 2016, and even four years under Clinton may have been enough to wipe out any hope of ever turning things around. The election of Donald Trump was literally the greatest miracle in modern American political history, but it doesn’t mean that our Republic has been saved. What it does mean is that we now have a narrow window of opportunity to save our Republic.

Today they call themselves “Democrats”, “liberals” and “progressives”, but the truth is that leftist politicians in both parties have been steadily marching us down the road toward socialism for a very long time. Our Constitutional Republic is barely recognizable at this point, and it is going to take emergency measures to restore it. So now is definitely not a time for politics as usual and more of the same in Washington. Instead, we need to send bold leaders to Washington that will be willing to turn our deeply corrupt system upside down. If I am able to win my race and get to Washington that is precisely what I intend to do, but I can’t do it alone. There are less than 80 days to go until May 15th, and I am asking for your help to win this incredibly close race.

Donate By Check: Make your check out to “Michael Snyder For Congress” and send it to the following address…

Michael Snyder For Congress
PO Box 1136
Bonners Ferry, ID 83805

Doing nothing is not an option.

If we fail to take advantage of this opportunity provided by the Trump presidency, eventually the left will retake control and will continue marching us down the road toward socialism until the Republic that our founders established is destroyed for good.

In 2018 if we elect typical wimpy Republican politicians that simply want to be part of the Washington club and advance their political careers, nothing will get accomplished.

What we need are visionary men and women that are willing to stand up to the leadership of both parties and say that enough is enough.

We are simply not going to do things the same way any longer.

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again. What we need is a second American revolution. I am not talking about a revolution of guns and bullets, but rather one of ideas, values and principles. I would like to share what I wrote about this second American revolution when I first announced my candidacy last July…

Today, the liberal elite dominate almost every aspect of our society. Their enormous media corporations control more than 90 percent of the news and entertainment that we watch on our televisions, their dominance of the legal system has resulted in the legalization of abortion and gay marriage, and their relentless grip on public education means that an entire generation of young Americans is being indoctrinated in their ways.

And of course for decades the liberal elite have been accustomed to pulling the strings in both major political parties. Many had believed that it would be impossible for us to ever take our government back, but the election of Donald Trump showed us that anything is possible if we will just work together.

Today, our Republic is hanging by a thread. If our founders had not stood up and fought for their way of life, the United States of America would not exist today, and if we do not stand up and fight for our way of life now, there will be nothing to pass on to our children and our grandchildren.

There are many that believe that America is too far gone, and so they are content to sit back and wait for everything to fall apart.

But that is not my choice.

I choose to fight for America.

Every generation of Americans has had to take a stand for liberty, and now it is our turn.

Please join this nationwide movement, because this literally may be the last chance we ever have to take our government back.

If we can get to Congress, we are going to fan the flames of this fire until it sweeps all across America. But we need to get there first, and you can help make that happen by making a contribution today…

Donate By Check: Make your check out to “Michael Snyder For Congress” and send it to the following address…

Michael Snyder For Congress
PO Box 1136
Bonners Ferry, ID 83805

This race for Congress is one of the most closely contested that I have ever seen. With less than 80 days to go, four candidates are locked in an extremely tight race, and we literally do not know who is going to win.

If you would like to keep up with our campaign on a daily basis, the best way to do that is to visit our official Facebook campaign page. We try to update it several times a day, and we just posted a photo of my speech at the Lincoln Day event in Boise County.

And even if you don’t live in the state, you can write to those that you do know in Idaho and tell them to check out MichaelSnyderForCongress.com. In just a little over two months voters are going to be going to the polls, and so right now we are working as hard as we can to improve our numbers.

We have put together a great plan for pulling ahead in these final weeks, but we do not yet have all the resources that we need to execute that plan. Please prayerfully consider helping us during this final stretch if you feel a leading in your heart to do so.

Michael Snyder is a pro-Trump candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District. If you would like to help him win on May 15th, you can donate online, by Paypal or by sending a check made out to “Michael Snyder for Congress” to P.O. Box 1136 – Bonners Ferry, ID 83805. To learn more, please visit MichaelSnyderForCongress.com.

Many had been hoping that the financial shaking on Wall Street that we witnessed in February would subside in March, but so far that is definitely not the case. On Thursday, the Dow fell another 420 points as investors fretted about the potential for a trade war. Over the past month, we have seen many days when stock prices have been way down and other days when stock prices have been way up. This is precisely the sort of wild volatility that we would expect to see if a major financial crisis was brewing, and the truth is that our financial system is far more vulnerable today than it was back in 2008.

Many Americans have assumed that the U.S. economy must be in great shape since the stock market has just kept going up for the past several years. But the reality of the matter is that stock prices are no longer connected to economic reality whatsoever. The U.S. economy has not grown by 3 percent or more in 12 years, but stock prices have been shooting into the stratosphere thanks to relentless central bank intervention.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed 420.22 points lower at 24,608.98 after rising more than 150 points earlier in the day. The 30-stock index fell as much as 586 points.

The S&P 500 declined 1.4 percent to end at 2,677.67 — erasing its year-to-date gains — with industrials as the worst-performing sector. It also briefly broke below its 100-day moving average, a key technical level. The Nasdaq composite fell 1.3 percent to 7,180.56 and dipped below its 50-day moving average.

President Trump said Thursday he will impose heavy tariffs on imported steel and aluminum that could increase American jobs in those sectors but also raise prices.

The actions could hurt a number of industries including automakers and suppliers, boat and plane manufacturers and even beer companies.

There’s also concern the move could trigger a “trade war” in which countries would retaliate by imposing tariffs, or other measures, in response.

Yes, there will be some adjustments in the short-term, but Trump is quite correct to impose these sorts of tariffs on nations that are taking advantage of us.

For decades we have allowed China and other major exporting countries to greatly take advantage of us, and as a result we have lost more than 70,000 manufacturing facilities and millions of good paying jobs.

Of course China and other countries that have been taking advantage of us may try to strike back after being hit by these new tariffs, and many fear that this could result in a trade war. The following comes from CNBC…

“One of the largest fears we have is we’ve got tariffs. We could have trade wars, and it could blow up NAFTA negotiations, and nobody wins a trade war,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley FBR.

We are always going to need to trade with the rest of the world, but we need trade agreements that are fair.

In the end, we simply cannot sacrifice American companies and American middle class jobs just to make the rest of the world happy with us. I fully support President Trump’s America First agenda, and when I go to Washington I am going to work very hard to help President Trump bring jobs back to this country.

Michael Snyder is a pro-Trump candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District. If you would like to help him win on May 15th, you can donate online, by Paypal or by sending a check made out to “Michael Snyder for Congress” to P.O. Box 1136 – Bonners Ferry, ID 83805. To learn more, please visit MichaelSnyderForCongress.com.

]]>http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/the-dow-jones-industrial-average-falls-another-420-points-as-investors-panic-about-a-potential-trade-war/feed012 Years In A Row And Counting: The U.S. Has Not Had A Year Of 3 Percent Economic Growth In More Than A Decadehttp://themostimportantnews.com/archives/12-years-in-a-row-and-counting-the-u-s-has-not-had-a-year-of-3-percent-economic-growth-in-more-than-a-decade
http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/12-years-in-a-row-and-counting-the-u-s-has-not-had-a-year-of-3-percent-economic-growth-in-more-than-a-decade#respondThu, 01 Mar 2018 02:26:09 +0000http://themostimportantnews.com/?p=29372

If the U.S. economy is in good shape, then why has economic growth been so anemic for more than a decade? It has been 12 long years since the economy grew by at least 3 percent, and for most of that time my website has been one of the leading voices chronicling America’s long-term economic problems. In 2017, U.S. GDP increased by just 2.3 percent, but at least that was better than the pathetic 1.5 percent figure that was posted for 2016. With Donald Trump in the White House, we have taken some steps in the right direction, but we must never forget that our long-term economic and financial problems continue to steadily get worse.

As I travel around Idaho’s first congressional district, I often tell voters that we have not had a year of 3 percent economic growth since the middle of the Bush administration, and a lot of people have a really hard time believing that this is accurate. But of course it is 100 percent true, and earlier today CNS News published an article highlighting this fact…

This drought is highly, highly unusual. In fact, before this 12 year stretch the previous record was just four years…

Before the current period, when the nation has seen twelve straight years without 3 percent growth in real GDP, the longest stretch of years in which real GDP did not grow by at least 3 percent was during the Great Depression—when there were four straight years (1930-1933) when real GDP did not grow that much.

Have we entered a new era of low economic growth?

Is 3 percent the best that we can hope for from now on?

I have pointed out many times that Barack Obama was the only president in all of U.S. history never to have a single year of 3 percent economic growth, and he had two terms to try to achieve that.

Of course the U.S. economy began struggling far before Obama entered the White House. As the U.S. has increasingly embraced socialism, our once vibrant economy has really had a tough time. In fact, since the end of the Reagan administration our economic growth numbers have not been good at all…

The last time it grew by more than 7 percent was 1984, when Ronald Reagan was president. That year, it grew by 7.3 percent.

In the years after 1984, the highest level of economic growth achieved by the United States was in 1999, when real GDP grew by 4.7 percent.

The U.S. economy is way overdue for a recession, and many believe that the next major economic downturn is right around the corner. We just witnessed the worst February for stocks in 9 years, and the Dow ended the month on a huge down note. Hopefully things will rebound in March, but there is absolutely no guarantee that will happen.

The following are some more facts about what transpired in February from Zero Hedge…

We are less than 80 days away from May 15th, and it is an exceedingly close race between me and three other major candidates.

If you live in Idaho’s first congressional district, please mark May 15th on your calendar. Our numbers are surging and we feel very good about the race, but without a doubt we are going to need every single vote that we can get.

Michael Snyder is a pro-Trump candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District. If you would like to help him win on May 15th, you can donate online, by Paypal or by sending a check made out to “Michael Snyder for Congress” to P.O. Box 1136 – Bonners Ferry, ID 83805. To learn more, please visit MichaelSnyderForCongress.com.

Every time the left goes into a gun grabbing frenzy, gun sales always end up going through the roof. In the aftermath of the recent tragedy in Florida, we are seeing an all-out assault on our 2nd Amendment rights like we haven’t seen in decades. Politicians from both parties are pushing for new gun control legislation, and as a result gun owners all over the nation are feverishly stockpiling weapons and ammo while they still can. In fact, Google searches for “buy a gun” and “buy AR15” both just hit the highest levels ever recorded.

At a gun show down in Tampa, Florida over the weekend, nearly 7,000 people showed up on a single day. The Republican governor down there has turned out to be a gun control nut, and so true conservatives are buying guns while they still can. The following comes from my good friend Mac Slavo…

According to the New York Times, the lines stretched out the door this weekend at a gun show in Tampa, Florida, as thousands of potential buyers and the merely curious waited for their turn to browse booths stocked with the latest firearms, ammunition, customizable holsters, and patriotic paraphernalia.

Several sellers said they were on track to double their normal sales for a weekend. “It’s sad to say, but whenever there’s a shooting, business only goes up because people are afraid of losing their right to own a certain weapon,” said Quaidman Woody, who was running a booth with his father, a sales representative for CrossHeirs. “So even if they don’t need another AR, they’ll buy another AR or pieces of it.”

The left keeps insisting that more gun control is the answer, but look at what has happened to communities all over the country that have instituted very strict gun laws. Violent crime is at record levels in Chicago and other left-leaning cities across the nation, and meanwhile violent crime is at very low levels in communities that encourage gun ownership.

All throughout history, leftist governments have grabbed guns with absolutely tragic results. After massive gun grabbing campaigns, millions perished in the Soviet Union, Red China and Nazi Germany. Yes, the Nazis were leftists. They were “national socialists” that believed that big government was the solution to everything.

For decades, America has been marching down the road toward socialism as well. Under Barack Obama, gun owners were so concerned about the threat to our fundamental rights that it pushed gun sales to unprecedented heights. Here is more from Mac Slavo…

If we continue on the road that we are currently on, eventually we will become another “failed socialist utopia” and our constitutional republic will be gone forever.

But that isn’t going to happen. With Trump in the White House, this is our opportunity to take our government back, and future generations will look back on this moment in history as the key turning point.

Michael Snyder is a pro-Trump candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District. If you would like to help him win on May 15th, you can donate online, by Paypal or by sending a check made out to “Michael Snyder for Congress” to P.O. Box 1136 – Bonners Ferry, ID 83805. To learn more, please visit MichaelSnyderForCongress.com.

]]>http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/gun-sales-skyrocket-as-gun-owners-brace-for-an-all-out-assault-on-our-second-amendment-rights/feed0Tell Us What You Think – Will More Gun Control Make America A Safer Place?http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/tell-us-what-you-think-will-more-gun-control-make-america-a-safer-place
http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/tell-us-what-you-think-will-more-gun-control-make-america-a-safer-place#commentsSun, 25 Feb 2018 07:01:50 +0000http://themostimportantnews.com/?p=29364

The left has decided that the great tragedy that we just witnessed down in Florida is an opportunity to try to grab our guns. We are witnessing an all-out assault on the 2nd Amendment like we haven’t seen in decades, and this will undoubtedly be one of the most hotly debated issues as we head into the 2018 mid-term elections. I will never compromise a single inch when it comes to the 2nd Amendment, but unfortunately not all politicians are willing to take the same stand. In fact, some of my opponents publicly indicated that they were willing to compromise on gun issues even before the tragedy in Florida took place. If you would like to help us win this race so that we can relentlessly stand up for your 2nd Amendment rights in Washington, here is how you can make a financial contribution…

Donate By Check: Make your check out to “Michael Snyder For Congress” and send it to the following address…

Michael Snyder For Congress
PO Box 1136
Bonners Ferry, ID 83805

The 2nd Amendment says that the right of the people to keep and bear arms “shall not be infringed”.

Unfortunately, there has been a whole lot of infringing going on.

In this race for Congress, a couple of my opponents also say that they are “100% pro-gun”, but what they mean by that is very different from what I mean.

The status quo is not acceptable. For decades, Democrats have been moving the ball forward on gun control whenever they are in power, and then Republicans pledge to keep them from going any further once they take control. But the Republicans never go back and actually repeal the bad things that the Democrats put in place.

I believe that we need to repeal the major federal gun control laws that currently exist, and I am the only candidate in this race that has publicly taken that stand.

Keeping the Democrats from passing even more gun control laws is not enough. We must get rid of all laws that are currently infringing our 2nd Amendment rights, and if you agree with me I would like to ask for your support.

We have just 80 days until May 15th, and this race for Congress is super close. We have a great plan for pulling ahead in these last 80 days, but we haven’t raised all of the resources that we need to execute that plan. Here is how you can help…

Donate By Check: Make your check out to “Michael Snyder For Congress” and send it to the following address…

Michael Snyder For Congress
PO Box 1136
Bonners Ferry, ID 83805

I live in north Idaho, and I sleep very well at night because I know that virtually everybody is armed. If some thieves decided that it would be a good idea to start breaking into homes at night, they would have extremely short criminal careers.

Gun control is never the answer. Just look at Chicago. It has some of the toughest gun laws in the entire nation and yet murder and other forms of violent crime are completely out of control.

We need to send people to Washington that understand that there can never be any compromise when it comes to our 2nd Amendment rights.

If you live in Idaho, make sure that you get registered to vote. If you are already registered, your local county clerk can help you with an application for an absentee ballot.

Of course most people will vote on May 15th, and it is imperative that we all mark that day on the calendar.

If we do not vote, we may wake up some day and find that our 2nd Amendment rights are gone for good. The left is absolutely determined to destroy this country, and we are not going to allow that to happen.

How long can our debt levels keep growing much, much faster than the overall economy? We haven’t had a year of 3 percent growth for the U.S. economy since the middle of the Bush administration, but we keep borrowing money as if there is no tomorrow. Much of the focus has been on the exploding debt of the federal government, and that is definitely something I plan to address once I get to Washington. But on an individual level, U.S. consumers have been extremely irresponsible as well. In fact, one new survey has found that more than 80 percent of all American adults are currently in debt…

It’s no secret that America is a nation that runs on debt, but it may surprise you to learn that the overwhelming majority of U.S. adults owe money in some way, shape, or form. According to new data from Comet, here’s how many Americans have debt at present:

80.9% of Baby Boomers

79.9% of Gen Xers

81.5% of Millennials

For most of us, it starts very early. We were told that going into debt to get a college education would not be a problem because we would be able to pay those loans off with the good jobs we would get after graduation.

Unfortunately, those good jobs never really materialized for many of us, and now millions of former college students are absolutely drowning in debt…

A study released Friday by the Brookings Institution finds that most borrowers who left school owing at least $50,000 in student loans in 2010 had failed to pay down any of their debt four years later. Instead, their balances had on average risen by 5% as interest accrued on their debt.

As of 2014 there were about 5 million borrowers with such large loan balances, out of 40 million Americans total with student debt. Large-balance borrowers represented 17% of student borrowers leaving college or grad school in 2014, up from 2% of all borrowers in 1990 after adjusting for inflation. Large-balance borrowers now owe 58% of the nation’s $1.4 trillion in outstanding student debt.

In addition to owing more than a trillion dollars on student loans, Americans are also now carrying more than a trillion dollars of auto loan debt and more than a trillion dollars of credit card debt.

Corporations have been incredibly irresponsible as well. Corporate debt has doubled since the last financial crisis, and corporate bankruptcies have been rising steadily in recent years. All it would take for the dominoes to really start falling is some sort of a major economic downturn.

Local, state and federal government debt levels are all at record highs as well. It is now being projected that our national debt will hit 30 trillion dollars by 2028, and those projections are probably too optimistic.

My guess is that we will almost certainly hit the 30 trillion dollar mark far sooner than that.

We can’t keep doing this to ourselves. Our incessant greed is literally destroying the future, but anyone that tries to warn about the collective insanity that has descended upon our society is mocked and ridiculed.

Let me ask you a question.

Would you willingly choose to give yourself cancer?

Of course not, but that is essentially what we are doing to ourselves as a society.

Debt is economic cancer, and as Lance Roberts has pointed out, if we continue to allow debt levels to grow like this eventually it will kill our entire economy…

Debt is, by its very nature, a cancer on economic growth. As debt levels rise it consumes more capital by diverting it from productive investments into debt service. As debt levels spread through the system it consumes greater amounts of capital until it eventually kills the host.

Debt is addictive, because it does boost our standard of living in the short-term. It is so easy to keep going back for one more “hit”, but every time we do it just makes our long-term crisis even worse.

Most people out there seem to think that our economic problems have been “solved”, but that is not true at all.

The truth is that our long-term problems just continue to grow with each passing day, and that is one of the reasons why I am so determined to go to Washington. We are at such a critical juncture right now, and if something is not done the prognosis is extremely negative.

If we stay on this current path, the very best that we can hope for is a “soft landing” and a greatly reduced standard of living for future generations of Americans. Here is more from Lance Roberts…

The processes that fueled the economic growth over the last 30 years are now beginning to run in reverse, and when combined with the demographic shifts in the U.S., the impact could be far more immediate and prolonged than the media, economists, and analysts are currently expecting. Sacrifices will have to be made, the economy will drag on at subpar rates of growth, individuals will be working far longer into their retirement years and the next generation of Americans will lead a far different life than what the currently retiring generation enjoyed.

It is simply a function of the math.

I am sorry for not writing more lately. I have been working night and day to get ready for May 15th. With Donald Trump in the White House, this is our opportunity to take our government back. If we miss this window, we may never have this sort of opportunity ever again.

America is drowning in debt, but of course our problems go far beyond that. Our economic, political, cultural and spiritual problems go very deep, and we desperately need to change course as a nation.

Unfortunately, most of the population is in a deep state of sleep, and my hope is that we can wake them up while there is still time to turn things around.

After everything, it is going to come down to the last 90 days. Hundreds of you have already gotten involved in this campaign either as volunteers or donors, and we have shocked the Idaho political elite by becoming one of the leading contenders in this race. But there is no prize for coming in second place. On May 15th, the voters in Idaho’s first congressional district will make their choice, and we didn’t put our blood, sweat and tears into this thing to come in second or third. As I write this, there are four candidates that still have a legitimate shot of winning, and we are one of the four. Our numbers have been steadily improving, and it is an incredibly tight race. We have a great plan for pulling ahead during the final three months, but we need more resources in order to implement it. Some of the best political minds in Idaho are on our team, and we know exactly what we need to do, but in order to make our plan a reality we need a $50,000 miracle. If you feel a prompting in your heart to help, here is the information that you will need…

Donate By Check: Make your check out to “Michael Snyder For Congress” and send it to the following address…

Michael Snyder For Congress
PO Box 1136
Bonners Ferry, ID 83805

If 1,000 of my readers each donated $50 today, we would have everything we need to implement our plan for the rest of this election by tomorrow.

Unfortunately, if we don’t win this election it is going to be a major disaster for the Trump movement. We don’t want to send someone to Washington that has publicly said that he “never” will support Donald Trump. We don’t want to send someone to Washington that has publicly said that Donald Trump “can go straight to hell”. And we definitely don’t want to send someone to Washington that voted against Donald Trump and that has literally surrounded himself with “never Trumpers”.

At first I didn’t fully understand why the Lord moved me in this direction, but now it has become exceedingly clear that there are no other acceptable options in this race. Trump voters all over the district are pouring into our campaign, but there are still hundreds of thousands more voters that we need to reach with our message.

We are hoping that President Trump himself will come out to Idaho and make an appearance in support of our campaign. If you would like to see this happen, there is something that you can do to help us.

We are encouraging all of our supporters to write to President Trump. Please let him know that we would love to have him come out to Idaho and help get out the vote for our campaign. If you would like to lend your hand to the effort, you can find the information for contacting the White House right here…

If hundreds of you make your voices heard, it will make a huge difference. And if we can get President Trump to make even a brief appearance on behalf of our campaign, that would almost certainly be enough to get us the victory.

Last week we had a very successful visit to central Idaho, and this week we will be down in south Idaho once again. Everywhere we go the response to our campaign has been overwhelmingly positive, and we won the most recent KIDO online survey by a wide margin.

But a couple of our opponents have raised a bit more money than us, and we must close that gap. We cannot allow a RINO to steal this seat by simply outspending us.

Have you ever seen an Olympic athlete run out of gas and blow a lead at the very end of a long race? Well, we definitely do not want that to happen to us. Throughout the second half of 2017 we worked incredibly hard in order to put ourselves into a position to win this thing, and now this is the big final push. Fundraising is down from last quarter, but now is the time when we actually need it the most.

If you would like to see us win this race for Congress, please consider donating to the campaign. We literally need a miracle, and you can be part of that miracle by making a contribution today…

Donate By Check: Make your check out to “Michael Snyder For Congress” and send it to the following address…

Michael Snyder For Congress
PO Box 1136
Bonners Ferry, ID 83805

I would like to thank everyone that has gotten involved in the campaign so far. What we have already accomplished is a major miracle, and we have already completely shocked the Idaho political establishment.

But coming in second or third is not good enough, and in order to win on May 15th we have got to give it everything that we have got over the next 3 months.

In Liberty,

Michael Snyder

]]>http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/the-next-90-days-will-determine-whether-michael-snyder-goes-to-congress-and-we-need-a-50000-miracle/feed0Michael Snyder’s Campaign For Congress Has Just Received Two More Major Endorsementshttp://themostimportantnews.com/archives/michael-snyders-campaign-for-congress-has-just-received-two-more-major-endorsements
Sun, 11 Feb 2018 06:19:22 +0000http://themostimportantnews.com/?p=29349

There are less than 100 days to go until the primary on May 15th, and our campaign just continues to pick up more momentum. We just received two more major endorsements, and more extraordinary people are joining the campaign with each passing day. If you would like to join the team, you can find our volunteer page right here and our online donation page right here. Earlier this evening we learned that we have officially been endorsed by Vote Team Trump, and we are extremely excited about that. Those involved in the Trump movement all around the country are recognizing that this extremely close race here in Idaho is one of the most critical Republican primaries. One of my main opponents has publicly stated that Donald Trump “can go straight to hell”, and if he wins this open seat it will be an absolute disaster for the Trump movement.

But we are not going to allow that to happen. Our campaign is absolutely surging, and now we have the support of Vote Team Trump. If you are not familiar with Vote Team Trump, here is a little bit about them from their official website…

VoteTeamTrump.com is the official web site of the Vote Team Trump movement. We are not an organization, corporation, retailer, or reseller. We do not accept financial resources or assets from anyone in exchange for any product or service. We are not affiliated with any political party or action committee.We are a variegated grassroots movement that utilizes personal finances, assets, time, and talent to inform the People of Trumpian candidates. Our one common bond is the Trumpian platform: deregulation and downsizing of the federal government, legal immigration, an end to political terrorism, American economy first, American energy independence, preservation of American history and culture, states’ rights, and the American Constitution.

This endorsement from Vote Team Trump comes immediately after being endorsed by the largest Tea Party group on Facebook. With nearly 100,000 members nationally, it is a very powerful force on Facebook, and we believe that they will be able to move a significant number of votes in our direction.

When Idaho State Senator Dan Foreman endorsed our campaign a few weeks ago on the steps of the Idaho state capitol, that was a major turning point. Senator Foreman is one of the top conservative voices in the entire state, and since that time conservatives all over the state have begun coalescing around our campaign.

With just over three months to go until election day, this is the time for the final big push. Over half of all voters are still completely undecided in this very tight race, and we need to reach them before the other candidates do. There is so much that needs to be done in the coming weeks, and at this moment we do not have the resources to do it all. We very much need your help right now, and so I am asking all of my core supporters to consider contributing at least 25 dollars to our campaign this month.

Another key turning point was the first candidate debate in Coeur d’Alene a couple of weeks ago. We were widely acclaimed as the big winners of that debate, and a number of conservatives that were impressed with our performance during that debate have come on board as new volunteers. If you have not seen our highlights from that debate yet, you can view them in high quality on YouTube right here. We absolutely fried the other candidates, and for a couple of them this candidate forum was immensely damaging to their campaigns.

Tomorrow we hit the campaign trail yet again, and if you live in central Idaho I hope that you will make plans to join us. On Sunday the 11th, I will be speaking with voters in Potlatch, Idaho at 2 PM at the Scenic 6 depot.

On this trip we will also be making stops in Lewiston and Grangeville, and later this month we will be making an extended visit down to south Idaho.

If every one of my regular readers were to donate 25 dollars today, we could literally stop raising money tomorrow and focus all of our energy on campaigning for the next 90 days. With Donald Trump in the White House, this is our opportunity to take our government back. For those of you that are not familiar with our campaign yet, the following are 28 key things that I stand for…

#1 A Pro-Trump Conservative – Donald Trump helped restore my faith in America by winning the 2016 election, and I will fight like mad to implement his agenda if I am elected to Congress.

#2 It’s Time To Drain The Swamp – The same rules that apply to the rest of us should also apply to Congress, and all federal officials should be banned from working as lobbyists for at least ten years after they leave government service.

#3 Restoring The Rule Of Law – For decades, the American people have watched professional politicians commit crime after crime and get away with it. It is time to restore the rule of law in this country, and a great place to begin would be with Hillary Clinton and her close associates. It will be a great day for America when they are finally put in prison for the rest of their lives.

#4 Every RINO Must Go – Way too many Republicans have been fighting Trump’s agenda and acting like Democrats. It is time to hold them accountable, and that means every ‘Republican in name only’ needs to go.

#5 Getting The Money Out Of Politics – As a new member of Congress, I would be expected to raise approximately $200,000 for the National Republican Congressional Committee. In order to “pay their dues”, every day that the House is in session members of Congress go to call centers across from the U.S. Capitol and spend up to four hours a day making calls back to their districts begging people to donate money. One of the things that makes me fundamentally different from my opponents is that I have pledged not to make these calls. Instead, I am going to spend my time in Washington doing the work that the people of Idaho sent me there to do.

#6 100% Pro-Life – No money for Planned Parenthood ever. Nearly 60 million babies have been murdered since 1973, and I am making an unbreakable pledge to vote against any bill that funds Planned Parenthood 100% of the time.

#7 100% Pro-Gun – The Constitution says that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Let me be very clear – I will never back down from defending the Second Amendment even a single inch. You have a constitutional right to own any gun that you want, and you have a constitutional right to carry that gun anywhere that you want.

#8 Abolish The IRS & The Income Tax – We didn’t have an income tax from 1872 to 1913, and that was the greatest period of economic growth in U.S. history. As we fight a long-term battle to abolish the income tax, in the short-term we can at least go to a flat tax or a fair tax, both of which would be far superior to what we have now.

#9 Abolish The Federal Reserve – Since the Fed was created in 1913, we have had 18 recessions, the value of the U.S. dollar has fallen by about 98 percent, and the U.S. national debt has gotten more than 6000 times larger. Abolishing this debt-based system is one of the keys to a bright economic future for America.

#10 Cut Red Tape – As President Trump has proposed, two existing government regulations should be eliminated for every new regulation that is enacted.

#11 Getting Federal Bureaucrats Off Our Backs – I will work very hard to get federal control freaks off of the backs of our farmers, our loggers, our miners, our ranchers and our small business owners.

#12 Local Control Of Education – It is time to get the federal government out of the education business. I want to abolish Common Core and the Department of Education, and I want control over education to be as close to the local level as possible.

#13 Shut Down Big Brother Spying – Government agencies have been conducting unconstitutional surveillance of American citizens for decades, and that needs to stop now.

#14 True Limited Government – President Trump has proposed shutting down more than 60 different government programs and agencies. That would be a good start. Instead of asking which government agencies we should close, we should be asking which government agencies really need to remain open.

#16 Build The Wall – We need to make sure that everyone comes into this country through the front door. We must end illegal immigration, and so I support President Trump’s call to build a wall on the southern border.

#17 End Sanctuary Cities – President Trump has proposed cutting off all federal funding for so-called “sanctuary cities”, and I will fight very hard to get this done.

#18 Supporting Our Veterans – My father is a vet, and I will work passionately to make sure that our veterans receive the respect, care and support that they deserve.

#19 Fighting Islamic Terror – I fully support President Trump’s fight against ISIS, and I will push for legislation that would give local communities all over America the option to say no to refugees from terrorist hotbeds.

#20 Stopping Reckless Government Spending – We are 20 trillion dollars in debt and we continue to steal more than 100 million dollars from future generations every single hour of every single day.

#21 Bringing Jobs Back To America – The U.S. has lost more than 70,000 factories since China joined the WTO in 2001. Our formerly great manufacturing cities now look like war zones, and we desperately need to start making things in this country once again.

#22 Energy Independence – The United States has abundant reserves of oil, natural gas and clean coal, and we need to take the regulatory shackles off of the energy industry so that we can start moving toward energy independence.

#23 Resisting The Globalists – We must reduce the power and influence of the United Nations, and we must strongly fight all attempts by the globalists to erode American sovereignty.

#24 Supporting States Rights – It is almost as if the 10th Amendment doesn’t even exist today. If I am elected, this is what his message to the feds will be: ‘Hand over the keys and get out of Idaho’.

#25Health Freedom – I believe that the government should be encouraging natural health remedies instead of discouraging them, I believe that parents should always make the health decisions for their own children, and I believe that we desperately need to clean up our air, our water and our food.

#26 Removing The Wolves – Under Bill Clinton, Canadian gray wolves were brought to Idaho. These wolves travel in packs and are killing machines. I am 100% committed to removing these wolves from our state.

#27 Holding Judges Accountable – Federal judges that disregard the U.S. Constitution and that choose to legislate from the bench should be subject to impeachment.

#28 An Unashamed Christian – Like President Trump, I am not ashamed to say that I am a Bible-believing Christian, and if we truly want to make America great again we need to return to the values and principles that this nation was founded upon.

In the vast majority of the races for the House and the Senate around the country, we already know who is going to win.

Our race is one of the very few races that is completely undecided, and if we all pull together we can win this thing.

Please help us if you can. Our numbers are surging, and to continue that surge we need to get our message to the more than 400,000 registered voters in this district within the next three months. We have a very clear path to victory, but we must raise the resources that we need in order to execute our gameplan.

I would like to thank everyone that has already joined our team. Because of you, we have already shaken the world of Idaho politics to the core. If we ultimately pull out this victory, it will be the biggest shock in the history of Idaho politics, but it won’t be a surprise to us.

The Trump movement is all about winning, and we are going to win races all over the nation in 2018.

We haven’t seen this kind of a bloodbath on Wall Street since the great financial crisis of 2008. Prior to this week, the largest single day decline for the Dow Jones industrial average that we had ever seen was 777 points. That record was absolutely shattered on Monday when the Dow fell 1,175 points, and on Thursday the Dow dropped another 1,032 points. This was the third decline greater than 500 points within the last five trading days, and the Dow is poised to post its worst week since the dark days of October 2008. So is this just a “correction”, or has the financial crisis of 2018 officially arrived?

At this point, many of the experts are pointing to the bond market as the primary reason why stock prices are crashing. The following comes from CNBC…

There’s a not-so-quiet rebellion going on in the bond market, and it threatens to take 10-year yields above 3 percent much faster than expected just a few weeks ago.

As a result, the bumpy ride for stocks could continue for a while.

And without a doubt, analysts such as Jeff Gundlach clearly warned that there would be big trouble for stocks as bond yields rose…

Gundlach had correctly predicted that if the 10-year U.S. Treasury note yield went above 2.63 percent, U.S. stock investors would be spooked.

“Clearly, the market gets shaky when the 10-year hits 2.85 percent,” Gundlach said. “Just look at this week, and today. Makes one consider what could be coming if 10s push over 3 and 30s (30-year Treasury bond) over 3.22 percent.”

The 10-year yield is currently trading around 2.83 percent. Gundlach said it is “hard to love bonds at even a 3 percent” yield. “Rising interest rates are a problem and the U.S. is in debt and there is massive bond supply,” Gundlach said.

Moving forward, it will be important to keep a close eye on bond yields. Every time they start going back up, we are likely to see stock prices go down…

“We’re in a vicious cycle here. If the yields go up, you have to sell stocks. If you sell stocks, and they crash, yields come back down,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley FBR.

The bond market’s struggle to price in higher interest rates has been kneecapped each time the stock market reacts and sells off. Strategists expect the two markets to ultimately find an equilibrium but not without more sharp swings.

This is one of the reasons why the budget deal going through Congress right now is such a bad idea. Hundreds of billions of dollars of additional spending on top of what we are already doing is going to push up bond yields, and that is just going to make the pressure on Wall Street even worse.

Of course the folks over at the Federal Reserve could intervene, but they don’t seem inclined to do that at this point. Late last year the Fed finally removed artificial life support from the financial system, and at first everything seemed to be going well. But now a new crisis is brewing, and we shall see if the Fed still remains determined to keep raising rates. The following comes from Peter Schiff…

“The Fed were dragging their feet in raising rates while Obama was president. They talked about raising rates but at the end of the day, they barely moved them up. The pace of hikes has increased since Trump was elected, but part of the reason for that…I mean, the media is not talking down the economy; if anything they’re overhyping the economy. Everybody’s talking about how strong the economy is, how everything is great. Everybody is taking credit for this great economy. The Fed wants to take credit for it, Trump wants to take credit for it, so if everybody wants to talk about how great the economy is, the Fed doesn’t have any excuse if it doesn’t raise rates…in order to keep up the pretense that the economy is as strong as everybody thinks, the Fed is in this box where it has to raise rates.

But they [the Fed] can’t tell the truth that it’s really a bubble, and if we raise rates, we’re gonna prick it, so they’re kinda in this bind. And they are still telegraphing that they’re gonna raise rates three or four times this year. And that is the problem.“

It has been my contention for a very long time that the greatest financial bubble in human history would not be able to continue without artificial support from the Fed and other global central banks.

Once the Fed finally ended their artificial support for the markets late last year, I anticipated that there would be trouble, but stock prices continued to rise through the holiday season.

But now reality is setting in, and investors are rushing like mad for the exits. I really like how Brandon Smith described the current state of affairs in his recent article…

After I predicted the election of Donald Trump, I also predicted that central banks would begin pulling the plug on life support for equities markets. This did in fact take place with the Fed’s continued program of interest rate increases and the reduction of their balance sheet, which effectively strangles the flow of cheap credit to banking and corporate institutions that fueled stock buybacks for years. Without this constant and ever expansionary easy fiat, there is nothing left to act as a crutch for stocks except perhaps blind faith. And blind faith in the economy always ends up being smacked down by the ugly realities of mathematics.

Without artificial support, gravity will try to pull stock valuations back to their long-term averages. That would mean a decline for the Dow of at least 10,000 more points, but major financial institutions are so highly leveraged and Wall Street has become such a giant casino that our system literally cannot handle that sort of a decline.

The only way that the game can continue is for the Fed and other global central banks to intervene and prop up the absurd financial bubble that they originally created.

Absent that, this crisis is likely to go from bad to worse, and we may soon find ourselves facing a financial panic unlike anything that we have ever seen before.

Following an extremely strong State of the Union performance, President Trump’s approval numbers are steadily rising. In fact, as you will see below, Rasmussen Reports says that Trump’s approval rating is higher than Barack Obama’s was at this stage. That is startling, because the mainstream media would have us believe that Barack Obama was a widely popular president and that Donald Trump is the most hated president in modern American history. Yes, there are definitely a lot of people out there that do not like Trump, but the truth is that there are also millions upon millions of us that support the president and want him to succeed.

I knew that Trump’s State of the Union address would help him, but I wasn’t sure exactly how much it would help his approval numbers. Well, it turns out that some polls are now showing that his approval rating is approaching 50 percent. For example, Rasmussen Reports found that Trump’s approval rating hit 48 percent on Wednesday…

The latest figures include 34% who Strongly Approve of the way the president is performing and 42% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -8.

In comparison, Barack Obama only had a 44 percent approval rating on this exact same day eight years ago…

President Trump has a stronger approval rating today than media darling Barack Obama did back in 2010 on this same day.

Back on February 7, 2010 Barack Obama had an approval rating of 44% while 56% of likely voters disapproved of the far left president.

Of course other surveys show that Trump’s approval numbers are a bit lower, but they still show that they are rising.

For example, the latest numbers from Real Clear Politics show that Trump’s average approval rating has risen from 37.0 percent on December 12th to 42.3 percent currently. That is a move of more than five percent in less than two months, and that is an extremely promising sign for Republicans as we head toward the 2018 mid-term elections.

Many Republicans, including many of the opponents in my race, have purposely distanced themselves from Trump, and I believe that is a huge mistake.

Here in Idaho, one poll found that Trump has a 56 percent approval rating, and another poll found that he had a 53 percent approval rating, and both of those polls are from last year. Now that Trump’s numbers are surging nationally following his State of the Union address, Trump’s approval rating in this state is now undoubtedly higher.

But what matters most for all of the Republican primaries around the nation that are about to happen is Trump’s approval rating among Republican voters. And once again, those numbers appear to be surging.

For instance, for the week of January 29th to February 4th, Gallup found that Trump’s approval rating among Republicans hit 90 percent for the very first time in his presidency.

Trump only has a 6 percent approval rating among Democrats, but for the primaries that doesn’t matter. Trump is extremely popular among Republicans right now, and we need to work very hard to help pro-Trump candidates win primaries all across the country in the months ahead.

I have repeatedly stated that I want to be President Trump’s best friend in Congress, and I am going to work as hard as I can to implement the Make America Great Again agenda.

2018 is a make or break moment for the Trump movement. If the Democrats take back control of the House and the Senate, they are going to try to impeach Trump. If establishment Republicans remain in control, they are going to continue to stall Trump’s agenda in Congress.

But if the same movement that propelled Trump to the presidency rises up and gets behind pro-Trump candidates all over the country, we can shake Washington like it has never been shaken before.

Now is the time for “we the people” to take our government back. If we miss this once in a generation moment, we may never have this opportunity ever again.

Our national debt is rapidly approaching 21 trillion dollars, and yet Congress wants to follow up a large tax cut bill with a massive increase in federal spending. This is absolute madness, and it is going to make our long-term financial problems as a nation far worse. After passing the tax bill, the appropriate thing to do would have been to cut federal spending. Yes, that would have not been a positive thing for the economy in the short-term, but we must start addressing our long-term priorities. If we do not do something about this exploding national debt, it could potentially destroy our republic all by itself.

Earlier today, I was absolutely horrified when I learned of a budget deal in the Senate that would increase federal spending by about 200 billion dollars in each of the next two years…

The Senate’s Republican and Democratic leaders unveiled a sweeping two-year budget agreement on Wednesday that would increase federal spending by hundreds of billions of dollars on domestic and defense programs alike.

That deal would eliminate strict budget caps, set in 2011 to reduce the federal deficit, and would allow Congress to spend about $200 billion more in the current fiscal year and in fiscal year 2019.

Seriously?

Our federal debt is going to hit 21 trillion dollars some time this year, and they want to throw hundreds of billions of dollars more spending on top of what we are already doing?

This alone is why we need true conservatives all over the nation to run for Congress. Our endless greed is literally destroying the bright future that our children and our grandchildren were supposed to have.

I don’t know if I even have the words to describe how foolish our leaders are being. If interest rates on government debt were to return to their long-term averages, the game would already be over. We should be desperately attempting to get our financial house in order, but instead we are spending money as if tomorrow will never come.

But tomorrow always arrives, and a day of reckoning is fast approaching.

Fortunately, there are some members of Congress that seem to understand that we cannot keep spending money that we do not have. The following comes from USA Today…

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., who chairs the hard-line House Freedom Caucus, wants to see what comes back from the Senate, said his spokesman Ben Williamson.

“But if the numbers are as high as we’re hearing, Rep. Meadows does not support the budget deal,” Williamson said.

Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., said “this spending bill is a debt junkie’s dream… I’m not only a ‘no.’ I’m a ‘hell no.'”

As a member of Congress, I would always be a resounding “no” vote on these sorts of absurd budget deals.

Whatever happened to all of the strong fiscal conservatives that we sent to Congress during the days of the Tea Party movement? So many of them seem to have been enveloped by the swamp and are now doing whatever party leadership tells them to do.

Sadly, most Americans don’t even seem to understand that we have been adding more than a trillion dollars a year to the national debt since Barack Obama first entered the White House. The following is an extended excerpt from one of my previous articles…

When Barack Obama entered the White House, the U.S. national debt was just over 10.6 trillion dollars, and when he left the White House 8 years later it was sitting just shy of 20 trillion dollars.

So during those 8 years more than 9 trillion dollars was added to the national debt. But for purposes of this example we will round down to an even 9 trillion dollars.

When you divide 9 trillion dollars by 8, you get an average of 1.125 trillion dollars that was added to the national debt per year during the Obama era.

Dividing that figure by 365, you find that an average of $3,082,191,780 was added to the national debt every single day during the Obama administration.

And since there are 24 hours in a day, that means that an average of $128,424,657 was stolen from our children and our grandchildren every single hour of every single day while Barack Obama was president.

Under President Trump, we should be dramatically reducing federal spending and the size of the federal government.

Yes, this would hurt the economy in the short-term, but if we continue down the road we are currently on it is a recipe for national suicide.

As interest rates rise, it won’t be too long before we are paying more than a trillion dollars a year just in interest on the national debt. And when America plunges into a debt nightmare, there won’t be anyone in the entire world big enough to bail us out.

America cannot be great again if we are drowning in debt. What is happening in Washington is utter madness, and it should greatly anger all of us that our irresponsible politicians are systematically destroying the greatest republic that the world has ever seen.

]]>http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/is-washington-nuts-increasing-spending-and-cutting-taxes-will-explode-the-size-of-the-national-debt/feed1Just A Coincidence?: The Dow Goes From Being 567 Points Down To 567 Points Up At The Closing Bellhttp://themostimportantnews.com/archives/just-a-coincidence-the-dow-goes-from-being-567-points-down-to-567-points-up-at-the-closing-bell
Tue, 06 Feb 2018 21:48:31 +0000http://themostimportantnews.com/?p=29332

Seriously? We were expecting that Tuesday would be an unusual day on Wall Street, and that was definitely the case. At the low point, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 567 points, but at the closing bell it was up 567 points. That is a swing of more than 1000 points, but what is more surprising is the exact symmetry of those numbers. Is this just some sort of bizarre coincidence?

At the opening bell, stock prices collapsed and many were concerned that we were heading for another really bad day for investors. According to CNBC, the Dow was down 567 points at the lowest point…

The Dow Jones industrial average opened with a big whoosh lower, then rallied all the way back. As of 3:41 p.m. ET, the Dow is 600 points higher and trading at a new session high. At its session low it was down by 567 points.

But then momentum shifted and the Dow soared. By the end of the Day, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 567 points. The following comes from CNN…

The Dow plunged 567 points at the open on Tuesday and briefly sank into correction territory — a drop of 10% from its record high. But those losses quickly vanished, and the index ended the day up 567.

It was the Dow’s biggest point gain since August 2015 and the fourth-largest in history. The percentage gain of 2.3% is the biggest since January 2016.

It is not unusual to see market swings of this magnitude during times of high volatility. Even during times of panic, at some point the sellers get exhausted and investors looking for buying opportunities come surging in. On Tuesday, this shift in momentum came almost immediately after the opening…

“I thought we were going to see the bottom within five minutes of when we opened. I think that’s basically what we’re seeing,” said Ed Keon, portfolio manager at QMA, the quantitative and dynamic asset allocation business of PGIM. “At these levels, stocks represent pretty good value and we’re adding to equity exposure.” Keon said it’s too early to call a bottom but he expects that the worse is over.

But just because the Dow was up more than 500 points today does not mean that the crisis is over.

It is important to remember that there are wild swings both ways during any market crisis. For example, 9 of the 20 best days in stock market history were right in the middle of the financial crisis of 2008. So if a new financial crisis is indeed brewing, we would certainly expect to see days when the Dow rises dramatically.

Markets tend to do well when things are calm, and they tend to go down when things get choppy. So the fact that there was such volatility on Wall Street today is not a good sign.

Hopefully things will settle down, because the markets will not be able to handle too much more shaking. There is so much leverage on Wall Street today, and as Carl Icahn recently told CNBC, one of these days all of this leverage is “going to blow up the market”…

Billionaire Carl Icahn told CNBC on Tuesday there are too many exotic, leveraged products for investors to trade, and one day these securities are going to blow up the market.

The market is a “casino on steroids” with all these exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded notes, he said.

These funds, especially the leveraged ones, are the “fault lines” that will eventually lead to an earthquake on Wall Street, he said. “These are just the beginnings of a rumbling.”

Wednesday will be a key day. If the markets are nice and calm, that will be a really good sign.

But if we see tremendous movement in one direction or the other, that could indicate that more shaking is on the way.

In any event, the absurdly inflated stock prices of today are simply not sustainable. Stock valuations always return to their long-term averages eventually, and that will be true in this case as well.

What goes up must come down, and we have certainly witnessed this with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies lately. As far as stocks are concerned, the best that we can hope for in the long-term is a soft landing, but history tells us that is usually not how giant financial bubbles come to an end.

]]>-1,175 Points! We Just Witnessed The Largest One Day Stock Market Crash Everhttp://themostimportantnews.com/archives/1175-points-we-just-witnessed-the-largest-one-day-stock-market-crash-ever
Tue, 06 Feb 2018 00:42:37 +0000http://themostimportantnews.com/?p=29328

The mainstream media seems so surprised that the stock market is crashing, but the truth is that it isn’t a surprise at all. In fact, this crash is way, way overdue. If the Dow Jones industrial average fell another 10,000 points, stock prices would still be overvalued. I have been warning and warning and warning that this would happen, because stock valuations always return to their long-term averages eventually. On Monday, the Dow was down a staggering 1,175 points, which was the largest single day decline that we have ever seen by a very wide margin. In fact, it shattered the old record by nearly 400 points.

Shortly after 3 PM, all hell broke loose on Wall Street. The Dow dropped by more than 800 points in just 10 minutes. At one point on Monday, the Dow was down nearly 1,600 points, but a brief rally cut those losses roughly in half. However, the rally did not last long and stock prices collapsed hard as the market closed. At this moment, the Dow is already down more than 2,200 points from the peak of the market, and we are not too far from officially entering “correction” territory.

Once stocks start falling, it can trigger a massive rush for the exits, and that is what happened on Monday. In particular, investors started to panic once the Dow broke through the 50-day moving average…

“As soon as we broke the 50-day moving average … we saw volatility spike,” said Jeff Kilburg, CEO of KKM Financial. “It’s just been downhill from there.”

Other waves of selling were triggered once the 25,000 and 24,000 barriers on the Dow were breached. In order to protect against losing too much money, many investors have stop losses set at psychologically-important levels. The following comes from MarketWatch…

Amplifying the slump was computer-programmed trade set to dump shares at certain levels. According to traders, the Dow DJIA, -4.60% was set to trigger trades once it fell below 25,000 and 24,000, for example, and 2,700 for the S&P 500.

Markets almost always go down faster than they go up, and once panic begins to spread on Wall Street it doesn’t take much to create a massive stampede.

In the end, this next financial crisis will be far worse than it should have been. The Federal Reserve and other global central banks have endlessly manipulated the financial markets, and they created the biggest financial bubble in human history.

When an irrational financial bubble is growing, it can seem like things are wonderful. But all such bubbles eventually burst, and the bursting of the bubble often does far more damage than the good that was accomplished by the manipulation of the markets.

So was there anything specific that caused the panic on Wall Street on Monday?

Yes, interest rates are rising, but as Bloomberg has noted, there wasn’t really anything noteworthy in the news that triggered the selling…

While Friday’s market rout came amid U.S. wage data on Friday that pointed to quickening inflation, which would lead to higher rates and, in turn, rising borrowing costs for companies, the selling Monday came amid few major data points.

“I think sentiment was a little too optimistic,” said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial Network. “What was driving the market up in January? It wasn’t the fundamentals, as good as they were, it was excessive confidence.”

Ultimately, time simply runs out on all irrational financial bubbles. It is interesting to note that the Tulip price index began to crash on this exact date in 1637, and we may look back and point to February 5th as the key moment when the “financial crisis of 2018” started.

Once again, let us hope for some type of a bounce tomorrow. Often stock prices do rebound quite a bit after an enormous decline, and many are hoping that stock prices will soar on Tuesday.

But so far the news after the market closed in New York has all been bad. For example, CNBC is reporting that XIV has fallen more than 80 percent after hours…

An exchange-traded security which is supposed to be a bet on calm markets was collapsing after hours.

And as I write this article, it looks like markets all over Asia are going to be way down at the opening.

If stock prices keep collapsing, it could actually cause a major financial crisis. So many financial institutions are deeply leveraged today, and many of them simply would not be able to handle a stock market decline of 30, 40 or 50 percent.

In particular, if things start to really unravel it will be important to pay special attention for any mention of “derivatives” in the financial news. Once those dominoes start falling, we will see financial pain on a scale unlike anything that we have ever seen before in U.S. history.

Also, let us not forget that trouble signs continue to emerge for the “real economy”. Just today, we learned that another major retail chain has filed for bankruptcy…

Bon-Ton Stores, the corporate parent of several department store chains, tumbled into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as the company seeks a fresh lease on life.

Bon-Ton, whose brands include Boston Store, Carson’s, Elder-Beerman and Younkers, had been on a fast track toward bankruptcy court after it recently announced plans to close 47 of its 260 stores.

I cannot stress enough that what happened on Monday is not a surprise. The only surprise is that it took this long to happen.

Stock valuations need to fall another 40 or 50 percent just to get back to their long-term averages, and whether that happens very rapidly or takes an extended period of time, the truth is that stock valuations will return to those long-term averages.

Unfortunately for us, the central banks have created a bubble of such enormity that it could potentially collapse the entire global financial system when it finally fully bursts.

Let us hope for calmer markets on Tuesday, but let us also be mindful that at some point we are going to pay an exceedingly great price for years and years of horribly foolish decisions.

]]>-666 Points: We Just Witnessed The 6th Largest Single Day Stock Market Decline In U.S. Historyhttp://themostimportantnews.com/archives/666-points-we-just-witnessed-the-6th-largest-single-day-stock-market-decline-in-u-s-history
http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/666-points-we-just-witnessed-the-6th-largest-single-day-stock-market-decline-in-u-s-history#commentsSun, 04 Feb 2018 23:16:20 +0000http://themostimportantnews.com/?p=29324

On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 666 points (665.75 points to be precise), and many are pointing out that this was the 6th largest single day crash that we have ever seen. This decline happened on the 33rd day of the year, and it was the worst day for the stock market by far since President Trump entered the White House. I have been repeatedly warning that we are way overdue for a stock market crash, and many are concerned that we may be on the precipice of another great financial crisis. We shall see what happens on Monday, because that will set the tone for the rest of the week. If we see another huge decline early Monday morning, that could easily set off full-blown panic selling on Wall Street.

Rising interest rates appear to have been the trigger for the enormous market drop on Friday. The following comes from the New York Post…

“We all know that many bull markets have ended by the Federal Reserve as they raise the rates to the point of slowing the economy down perhaps too much,” Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial, told The Post.

“It’s come on quickly and it caught the market off guard,” Krosby said.

It is quite rare for the market to drop this much in a single day. The largest single daily decline was a 777 point drop in 2008, and overall the Dow has fallen by more than 600 points less than 10 times throughout history…

The index posted a loss of nearly 666 points, its sixth-worst decline ever on a points basis.

The last time the index posted a drop of more than 600 points was June 24, 2016, the day after the Brexit vote.

The eight other times the Dow closed more than 600 points lower all took place in the last 18 years. Half occurred during the financial crisis in 2008.

My readers have heard me explain over and over that markets tend to go down a lot faster than they go up.

Once a market landslide begins, the movement can be absolutely breathtaking. But none of this should come as any sort of a surprise, because even the Washington Post admits that “speculation of a market pullback” has been seemingly everywhere in recent days…

The airwaves and online chatter have been flooded in recent weeks with speculation of a market pullback like the one that thundered in on Friday.

“It looks like the beginning of a market correction,” said Luke Tilley, chief economist at Wilmington Trust, the wealth and investment advisory arm of M&T Bank. “It’s not something that is very surprising, given the low volatility that we saw in 2017.”

Right now we are in the terminal phase of a historic “double bubble” in both stocks and bonds. Many times we will see one or the other get clobbered on a particular day, but Friday was a “bloodbath” for all asset classes…

Yesterday’s US equity market collapse and simultaneous bond market bloodbath was the biggest combined loss since December 2015, but perhaps more ominously, the week’s combined loss in bonds and stocks was the worst since Feb 2009.

So what will next week bring?

Hopefully things will settle down and we will see the markets start to bounce back. After a huge decline, that is often what happens.

But it would be foolish to ignore the fear that appears to be growing on Wall Street. At this point, even Bloomberg is openly wondering if this “is the start of something big?”…

Looking at the week’s drumbeat, you can’t help but wonder, is this the start of something big? Warnings about valuations have been pouring forth from bears for so long that barely anyone listens anymore. With the S&P 500 up almost 50 percent in less than two years, some see the end of the blissfully easy money that equities have spewed out for 13 straight months.

“It’s the turning point of volatility,” said Jeffrey Schulze, chief investment strategist at Clearbridge Investments, which manages $137 billion. “We were all very fortunate to go through a year like 2017. But there’s a number of different dynamics this year that will make volatility more part of the equation than it has been in quite some time.”

If the stock market does crash in 2018, it will not be a surprise.

The only surprise will be that it took this long to happen.

As I have stated over and over again, stock prices would need to fall by at least 40 or 50 percent just to get valuations back to their long-term averages, and stock prices always return to their long-term averages eventually.

Hopefully our day of reckoning has not arrived and this financial bubble can continue for a little while longer.

But if financial markets do begin to crash horribly this year, nobody will be able to say that they were not warned well ahead of time.

The future of the Trump movement is going to be decided in 2018. If the Democrats take back control of the House and the Senate this year, they are going to try to impeach President Trump. But that isn’t the only danger. If establishment Republicans remain in control, they will continue to block much of the Make America Great Again agenda in Congress. That is why it is absolutely imperative that we get out to vote for pro-Trump candidates in the Republican primaries that will soon be happening all over the nation. Because if our pro-Trump candidates don’t win these primaries, we won’t even have anyone decent to vote for once November 2018 rolls around. Personally, I am running a pro-Trump campaign for Congress in Idaho’s first congressional district, and if you would like to help us win on May 15th, you can donate online right here.

The stakes in this race are incredibly high. One PAC that spent more than seven million dollars trying to defeat Trump is now pouring money into the campaign of one of my opponents, and another one of my opponents once said that Donald Trump “can go straight to hell”. If we lose this race it will be a major disaster for the Trump movement, and that is why we are working so hard to bring in the resources that we need to win.

The mainstream media would like us to believe that Trump’s support is falling, but the truth is that he has very high approval ratings among Republicans from coast to coast. If we can get the voters to understand who the pro-Trump candidates are, we should be able to win primary after primary all over the nation.

In the end, it isn’t that complicated. We just need to take our pro-Trump message and share it everywhere that we possibly can. The following are 28 basic pro-Trump principles that I am running on, and I believe that they could be used as a blueprint for pro-Trump candidates across the country…

#1 A Pro-Trump Conservative – Donald Trump helped restore my faith in America by winning the 2016 election, and I will fight like mad to implement his agenda if I am elected to Congress.

#2 It’s Time To Drain The Swamp – The same rules that apply to the rest of us should also apply to Congress, and all federal officials should be banned from working as lobbyists for at least ten years after they leave government service.

#3 Restoring The Rule Of Law – For decades, the American people have watched professional politicians commit crime after crime and get away with it. It is time to restore the rule of law in this country, and a great place to begin would be with Hillary Clinton and her close associates. It will be a great day for America when they are finally put in prison for the rest of their lives.

#4 Every RINO Must Go – Way too many Republicans have been fighting Trump’s agenda and acting like Democrats. It is time to hold them accountable, and that means every ‘Republican in name only’ needs to go.

#5 Getting The Money Out Of Politics – As a new member of Congress, I would be expected to raise approximately $200,000 for the National Republican Congressional Committee. In order to “pay their dues”, every day that the House is in session members of Congress go to call centers across from the U.S. Capitol and spend up to four hours a day making calls back to their districts begging people to donate money. One of the things that makes me fundamentally different from my opponents is that I have pledged not to make these calls. Instead, I am going to spend my time in Washington doing the work that the people of Idaho sent me there to do.

#6 100% Pro-Life – No money for Planned Parenthood ever. Nearly 60 million babies have been murdered since 1973, and I am making an unbreakable pledge to vote against any bill that funds Planned Parenthood 100% of the time.

#7 100% Pro-Gun – The Constitution says that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Let me be very clear – I will never back down from defending the Second Amendment even a single inch. You have a constitutional right to own any gun that you want, and you have a constitutional right to carry that gun anywhere that you want.

#8 Abolish The IRS & The Income Tax – We didn’t have an income tax from 1872 to 1913, and that was the greatest period of economic growth in U.S. history. As we fight a long-term battle to abolish the income tax, in the short-term we can at least go to a flat tax or a fair tax, both of which would be far superior to what we have now.

#9 Abolish The Federal Reserve – Since the Fed was created in 1913, we have had 18 recessions, the value of the U.S. dollar has fallen by about 98 percent, and the U.S. national debt has gotten more than 6000 times larger. Abolishing this debt-based system is one of the keys to a bright economic future for America.

#10 Cut Red Tape – As President Trump has proposed, two existing government regulations should be eliminated for every new regulation that is enacted.

#11 Getting Federal Bureaucrats Off Our Backs – I will work very hard to get federal control freaks off of the backs of our farmers, our loggers, our miners, our ranchers and our small business owners.

#12 Local Control Of Education – It is time to get the federal government out of the education business. I want to abolish Common Core and the Department of Education, and I want control over education to be as close to the local level as possible.

#13 Shut Down Big Brother Spying – Government agencies have been conducting unconstitutional surveillance of American citizens for decades, and that needs to stop now.

#14 True Limited Government – President Trump has proposed shutting down more than 60 different government programs and agencies. That would be a good start. Instead of asking which government agencies we should close, we should be asking which government agencies really need to remain open.

#16 Build The Wall – We need to make sure that everyone comes into this country through the front door. We must end illegal immigration, and so I support President Trump’s call to build a wall on the southern border.

#17 End Sanctuary Cities – President Trump has proposed cutting off all federal funding for so-called “sanctuary cities”, and I will fight very hard to get this done.

#18 Supporting Our Veterans – My father is a vet, and I will work passionately to make sure that our veterans receive the respect, care and support that they deserve.

#19 Fighting Islamic Terror – I fully support President Trump’s fight against ISIS, and I will push for legislation that would give local communities all over America the option to say no to refugees from terrorist hotbeds.

#20 Stopping Reckless Government Spending – We are 20 trillion dollars in debt and we continue to steal more than 100 million dollars from future generations every single hour of every single day.

#21 Bringing Jobs Back To America – The U.S. has lost more than 70,000 factories since China joined the WTO in 2001. Our formerly great manufacturing cities now look like war zones, and we desperately need to start making things in this country once again.

#22 Energy Independence – The United States has abundant reserves of oil, natural gas and clean coal, and we need to take the regulatory shackles off of the energy industry so that we can start moving toward energy independence.

#23 Resisting The Globalists – We must reduce the power and influence of the United Nations, and we must strongly fight all attempts by the globalists to erode American sovereignty.

#24 Supporting States Rights – It is almost as if the 10th Amendment doesn’t even exist today. If I am elected, this is what his message to the feds will be: ‘Hand over the keys and get out of Idaho’.

#25 Health Freedom – I believe that the government should be encouraging natural health remedies instead of discouraging them, I believe that parents should always make the health decisions for their own children, and I believe that we desperately need to clean up our air, our water and our food.

#26 Removing The Wolves – Under Bill Clinton, Canadian gray wolves were brought to Idaho. These wolves travel in packs and are killing machines. I am 100% committed to removing these wolves from our state.

#27 Holding Judges Accountable – Federal judges that disregard the U.S. Constitution and that choose to legislate from the bench should be subject to impeachment.

#28 An Unashamed Christian – Like President Trump, I am not ashamed to say that I am a Bible-believing Christian, and if we truly want to make America great again we need to return to the values and principles that this nation was founded upon.

In 2016 we witnessed the biggest political miracle in American history, and some would say that taking control of Congress would be an even bigger miracle, but if we all work together I believe that anything is possible.

We shocked the world in 2016, and I encourage you to come join us as we shock it again in 2018.